compensation

My friend Andrea recently sent me an email remarking on the fact that Taiwan looks incredibly colorful, particularly in comparison to Poland, where she is living this year. So I thought I'd post this black and white picture of a shrine I saw at Ximending a couple of weeks ago, just to kind of even the score. Does it look like Poland now?

新年快樂！

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

cast of thousands

This photograph is from a show I attended on Wednesday night. As things were wrapping up, everyone who had performed got on stage to do one giant, confused song together. Very fun.

breaking my rule again

OK, well I guess I am posting some fieldwork photos from now on when I feel like it. No more apologizing. This is a photo of Teacher Liao, playing a sanxian and telling me a story. I went to visit him in the mountains today and I think I will go back again.

weeeeei-ya, wei-ei-ya-a*

A family friend whose company operates a factory in Sanchong invited me to observe their annual weiya a few weeks ago. What is a "weiya," you ask? Simply put, it's a party that Taiwanese businesses throw towards the end of the lunar year--employees and partners alike are invited and everyone eats and drinks and drinks and drinks some more. I took this photo towards the beginning of the evening, when everyone was still fairly sober. What you're seeing is a makeshift stage the employees set up in the middle of the factory floor for speeches, karaoke, drag performance, and even magic tricks. By the end of the night, a petulant (drunk) employee had torn down all the balloons and popped them with his feet.

*sung to the tune of "Hey Ya"